Car accident

Becles

I was told to take the car for an estimate last Friday, and that the garage had been faxed some paperwork. When I arrived on Friday, they'd never heard of me.

The assistance company claim they spoke to someone and faxed some more paperwork through on Sat and left me a message saying take the car in for an estimate on Monday.

On Monday the garage said they'd never heard of me, and had no recollection of a phone call and no fax. The man said it's a common problem, so he did the estimate anyway and contacted the assistance company himself on Monday afternoon. He was told they couldn't authorise repairs as I had no supplied any third party details at all.

The assistance company just seems like a total shambles

I've never had an accident before, so no idea how all this should work.

tomstickland

I recommend that you get out the Yellow pages and get 3-5 quick estimates from repair centres by driving round and asking for their opinion. I did this when I damaged my own car once and the prices ranged from £400 to £1400, and I plumped for a £800 option in the end. Some repair centres do 95% of their work for insurance compaines and as a result charge loads more than they could. Some tidy independant repair centres are much more reasonable.

Then go to the owners with a quote that you're happy with and see if they'll pay up. If not then you can leave it your insurers, or go via small claims court.

But, go the amicable route first.

Wig

tbh becs,

This has nothing to do with the assistance company, it is only your insurers problem, there's little point imo in haveing legal assistance cover on a comprehensiv policy.

Ask your insurer who their approved repairer is, and then say "So I can go and get my car repaired there straight away can I?"

Please name your insurance company, they really are pathetic.

Have you written them a letter requesting an authorisation for repair or you will take it to the financial obudsman?

Becles

It has to go through the assistance company as I can't afford to pay out the excess on the policy, which I would have to do if I went through the broker or insurance company.

I've had very little contact with the insurance company and broker who sold it, all the contact has been with the assistance company.

The assistance company rang me today and asked me to take my car in for an estimate, even though I did that on Monday and they have been faxed the paperwork :wall:

I haven't written a letter yet due to a heavy work load, but plan to get one written over the weekend.

The assistance company are called Angel Assistance.

allycat999

Wig wrote:

Please name your insurance company, they really are pathetic

Yes please name them so we can all avoid them.
I had a car run in the back of me in July I just took the drivers name,address and car registration and passed the details on to my insurance company. They dealt with it all, claim settled no problems. No fault accident. Didn't get the drivers insurance details as not required when I reported the accident my insurance company told me who the other insurer was, apparently unless its company insurance its all listed on a database. Why get involved isn't that what you pay your insurance for.

allycat999

Just read your last post, that is so complicated. After my accident I phoned insurance company, who took details arranged for car to go in and provided me with a hire car. As the accident was not my fault the hire car was upgraded to a people carrier (my car is a people carrier). My excess is £50 but I did not pay it this was simply paid for by the other insurance company. The insurance company were really nice and helpful and they were the cheapest quote!!

Wig

Whoa, brakes on!

Now we can see why the insurance company has refused repair,if that is what they have done. You *have* to pay the excess, and it will be refunded to you. If you can't pay it then if there is a known 3rd party insurer who admits fault they would cough up the excess straight away like with Alleycat above.

Don't you have a credit card? an agreed overdraft? parents? brothers sisters? someone, somehow you must pay that excess then you can get your car repaired asap, then your insurer should recover the amount from the 3rd party and pay you back your excess. In this rare case your assistance company should recover your costs for getting hold of the excess so if for example you paid by credit card, your assistance could get a recovery (of the interest accrued on that debt.) but it would still be your responsibility to pay it off as soon as you could. Thus minimising the interest accrued.

There's no point complaining to the ombudsman if the reason for the delay is that you have refused to pay the excess.

Becles

I haven't refused to pay an excess. I have never been asked to pay the excess.

The assistance company said they cover the excess then claim it back from the other party on my behalf.

I haven't got any problems with the insurance company, as I've had nothing to do with them since reporting the accident. It is the assistance company that is messing me about and not doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Bossyboots

Becles wrote:

I haven't refused to pay an excess. I have never been asked to pay the excess.

The assistance company said they cover the excess then claim it back from the other party on my behalf.

I haven't got any problems with the insurance company, as I've had nothing to do with them since reporting the accident. It is the assistance company that is messing me about and not doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Have you reported back to your insurers that you have problems with the assistance company?

I reported my solicitor to the insurers and they have said they will look into it if I wish. I gave him another chance on that occasion (thanks to andyd who gave me some very good information) but he has let me down again so I think now I am going to have to report back and change company. My insurers said they were surprised I was having problems and it was unusual but unless people let them know these things they can only assume everything is okay.

Wig

I don't understand this at all.

You said you can't afford to pay the excess, There aren't many people these days who can't afford the excess, what is it 100, 200, 250?

If you want your car repaired now (so you don't get in trouble with the law for driving a damaged vehicle) then the easiest way to do it is to ask your insurer to arrange for the repair and when it's done you pay the excess to the repairer.

If you can't afford to pay the excess, after exhausting all avenues of obtaining credit, then you are going to be stuck at the mercy of these farmers and their insurance company and it could drag on for months even over a year.

I can't believe anyone who can afford to drive a car in todays world cannot afford to pay the excess, it just beggars belief.

Oh and your insurer is the one who sold you the assistance policy, if they are using a crap company then the insurer should be told about it. However, these companies are always slow, they will send a letter wait 6 -8 weeks for a reply then send another letter wait again then send another letter, after so mony numbers of attempted contact the letters begin to get more threatening. You are expecting them to drop what they are doing and concentrate on your case, and somehow not allow the farmers a decent amount of time to respond, upto you but I think you are barking up the wrong tree.